grp
Chirping
A good friend of mine has been developing his homestead for the last couple of years. He has a set of four GSL hens and a Cochin rooster. In the fall one of his birds went broody and he decided to let her hatch a small group of chicks. After being endlessly entertained by his hens, and tasting how amazing his fresh eggs were, my girlfriend and i decided to adopt a pair of his chicks!
This meant i had to get to work creating a home for them. I really like the idea of recycling materials so my coop would be designed around what i had available to me. I read a lot of articles on this site to get an idea of what i needed for space, and got to work. My run would be 4'x6' (24 square feet) and the coop would be a 3'x3' machine crate (9 square feet). For nesting boxes, i decided to use two wooden wine boxes that i had lying around.
This is the end of day one. Its the only picture i took :/ I had to buy a few 2x4s to frame the run, but i reused a lot of old boards too! The run is entirely covered in chicken wire. Including the top and the bottom.
Here is the "finished" product. I have made a number of changes since this photo, but this was good enough to house the girls.
Another shot with the two birds! as you can see i used my extra roofing material to cover about half of the run. i used sand for the run floor after reading about it on BYC.
Meet Mildred and Lillian aka Mil' and Lil'
Once these beautiful birds made it to about 14 weeks old, Mil started making some unusual sounds. She turned out to be a he...So mil was renamed Milford and returned to the farm from whence he came. I imagine he made or will make a lovely dinner for someone.
After house sitting for another chicken owner, i got to spend a lot of time with a group of Barred Rocks. Here they are free ranging around Xmas time. I fell in love with his birds, so I decided to purchase myself a barred rock hen to keep Lil company. We named her Jill (keeping with the theme) and are back to two birds.
Here you can see that i built a whole roof for the run. If any of you are not familiar with Oregon, we don't really have traditional seasons. Instead have a 6-9 month wet season, and a 6-3 month dry season.
my birds didn't want to come out and play in the rain so i made a BIG roof to keep the entire run dry. now they spend most of the day scratching and rolling around in the sand.
A made. little ladder but they never use it, it will probably come out soon. in this picture you can see how much sand they kick out the sides. since this photo i have nailed up some pine 1x4 boards to hold the sand in
here you can see the inside of the nesting boxes. i made them shallow to discourage sleeping. Lil does not seem to care though, as she sleeps in the left box every night
This is the inside of the coop. I have since removed those hideous roosting bars and installed a single, straight roost opposite the nesting boxes. i also put a poop board under the new roost.
Lil
and the always sociable Jill
This meant i had to get to work creating a home for them. I really like the idea of recycling materials so my coop would be designed around what i had available to me. I read a lot of articles on this site to get an idea of what i needed for space, and got to work. My run would be 4'x6' (24 square feet) and the coop would be a 3'x3' machine crate (9 square feet). For nesting boxes, i decided to use two wooden wine boxes that i had lying around.
This is the end of day one. Its the only picture i took :/ I had to buy a few 2x4s to frame the run, but i reused a lot of old boards too! The run is entirely covered in chicken wire. Including the top and the bottom.
Here is the "finished" product. I have made a number of changes since this photo, but this was good enough to house the girls.
Another shot with the two birds! as you can see i used my extra roofing material to cover about half of the run. i used sand for the run floor after reading about it on BYC.
Meet Mildred and Lillian aka Mil' and Lil'
Once these beautiful birds made it to about 14 weeks old, Mil started making some unusual sounds. She turned out to be a he...So mil was renamed Milford and returned to the farm from whence he came. I imagine he made or will make a lovely dinner for someone.
After house sitting for another chicken owner, i got to spend a lot of time with a group of Barred Rocks. Here they are free ranging around Xmas time. I fell in love with his birds, so I decided to purchase myself a barred rock hen to keep Lil company. We named her Jill (keeping with the theme) and are back to two birds.
Here you can see that i built a whole roof for the run. If any of you are not familiar with Oregon, we don't really have traditional seasons. Instead have a 6-9 month wet season, and a 6-3 month dry season.
my birds didn't want to come out and play in the rain so i made a BIG roof to keep the entire run dry. now they spend most of the day scratching and rolling around in the sand.
A made. little ladder but they never use it, it will probably come out soon. in this picture you can see how much sand they kick out the sides. since this photo i have nailed up some pine 1x4 boards to hold the sand in
here you can see the inside of the nesting boxes. i made them shallow to discourage sleeping. Lil does not seem to care though, as she sleeps in the left box every night
This is the inside of the coop. I have since removed those hideous roosting bars and installed a single, straight roost opposite the nesting boxes. i also put a poop board under the new roost.
Lil
and the always sociable Jill
